SOURCE: "Matthew Prior's 'An Epitaph'," in The Explicator, Vol. 51, No. 2, Winter, 1993, pp. 84-9.

In the following essay, Thorson offers a close analysis of "An Epitaph."

Stet quicunque volet potens
 Aulae culmine lubrico, &c. Senec.

[The epigraph: "Let who will stand firm upon the slippery pinnacle of princely power." Seneca, Thyestes 391-92.]

Interr'd beneath this Marble Stone,
 Lie Saunt'ring Jack, and Idle Joan.
 While rolling Threescore Years and One
 Did round this Globe their Courses run;
 If Human Things went Ill or Well;
   5
 If changing Empires rose or fell;
 The Morning past, the Evening came,
 And found this Couple still the same.
 They Walk'd and Eat, good Folks: What then?
 Why then They Walk'd and Eat again:
   10
 They soundly slept the Night away:
 They did just Nothing all the Day:
 And having bury'd Children Four,
 Wou'd not take Pains to try for more.
 Nor Sister either had, nor Brother...